Fade to black: EP 8 - Circle Of Echoes
by maxrpg
Summary: SG-1 make a discovery that changes all that they know about who they are and where they came from, just an ordinary day and another mission through the gate...but everything is about to change.
1. Remember

**A/N: **This is the second part of my Journey story, each part can be read stand-alone but if you want to fully catch up then please read the first part which is episode 7 in my Fade to Black story series and can be found on my profile page :)

**The Journey - Part 2**

**- Circle of echoes -**

* * *

The Alterans were once a noble race of people who lived in peace and harmony on their home world of Celestis, that was until their mixed religious and scientific beliefs created a rift between them and eventually they split in to two groups, those who believed in learning about the universe through science and those who believed religion was the way to go.

The Ori, as the religious group became known, tried to convince the others that science was not the way but ultimately failed and as a result they tried to wipe them out, the Alterans didn't want to start an all out war with them and so they decided to leave Celestis in search of a new home and the two groups would be allowed to continue to follow their own beliefs without conflict with the other.

The Alterans eventually settled in the Milky Way galaxy and over millions of years they made countless scientific breakthroughs and eventually shed their physical bodies and moved to a higher plane of existence using a process known as ascension which allowed them to live as pure energy, they eventually became known as the Ancients, when they ascended they left behind a lot of their technology and probably the single most important of these was a device called the Stargate.

The Stargate allows people to travel between worlds via a wormhole, it was eventually taken over and used by a parasitic race known as the Goa'uld, who used it to enslave countless words and use it as a tool to demonstrate their power and convince people they were Gods, other races used the gate for trading purposes and exploration and the people of Earth used it to eventually bring down the Goa'uld and free the galaxy of slavery and false Gods.

The Ancients are powerful beings and known throughout the galaxy as the gate builders, but were they the first gate builders?.

* * *

**Three months ago**

It has been a little over a month since SG-1's last mission in the Pegasus galaxy, they were only meant to explore a crashed Furling ship and search for any technology that was salvageable but it went so terribly wrong, they discovered the ship was shot down by the Wraith and the Furling crew fed upon which made the Wraith super strong, Sam was badly injured in a fight with one of them and died from her injuries, as SG-1 stayed at her bedside grieving for their friend, Alisana was angry at the death of her people at the hands of the Wraith and was hell bent on getting revenge.

When she discovered the Wraith had taken a shuttle and were heading for the Furling home world she knew she had to stop them, leaping across the universe using the Stargate she eventually used the weapons on board Destiny to disable them, when she transported over to the shuttle she was so fuelled with anger that she killed every Wraith in her path as she ripped her way through the ship and she took back the life energy they had taken, she eventually used all this energy to destroy the Wraith and do what the Ancients said was impossible, she brought Sam back to life.

Alisana made the ultimate sacrifice and gave her life to save her people and her dear friend Sam, SG-1 have spent the last few weeks trying to come to terms with her death, O'Neill was reduced in rank back to the rank of Colonel for disobeying IOA orders and General Landry has returned as head of Stargate Command.

* * *

Carter is in bed sleeping, her forehead is covered with sweat, her eyes are moving around underneath her closed eyelids, her arms and head twitching occasionally and she lets out short sharp breaths of air, she's having a dream but it's clearly not a good one, suddenly she awakens and sits upright while screaming briefly, clutching her chest and breathing heavily.

At the opposite side of the bed, a lamp on a bedside table is switched on, illuminating the room.

"Sam." says a concerned O'Neill.

He sits up and places his hands gently on her shoulders, "Bad dreams again?" he asks, Carter nods.

"I just keep seeing it." says Carter.

She's been having these dreams almost every night for the last few weeks and its always the same, she's walking through dark hallways and its so dark she has to use her hands to feel her way around, she finds a door handle and opens the door revealing a room filled with blinding light, as she steps inside the room her eyes focus and she sees someone standing with their back turned in the corner of the room, she walks over and places her hand on their shoulder and says "Hello, can you help me, I'm lost." then suddenly they turn around and with a badly burnt and scarred face screams at her, then the whole room is engulfed in flames and she herself catches fire and starts to burn, that's when she wakes up.

O'Neill reaches over to the bedside table and picks up a glass of water and a pill from a bottle that was prescribed to Carter to help her sleep, he hands them to her and she places the pill in her mouth and washes it down with the water.

He places the glass back on the table, "Come here" he says, as they both lay back down with his arm around her, he turns off the lamp and rubs her head as she falls asleep.

* * *

The next morning at Stargate Command, all base personnel are going about their daily duty's, maintenance crews checking key systems and changing light bulbs, canteen workers preparing enough food to feed a small army and of course ensuring they make enough tater tots for their favourite Jaffa, SG teams walk the halls preparing to head off world to continue exploring the galaxy.

At the end of a hallway the elevator doors slide open and Jack and Sam step out, they're greeted by their fellow team members who have been waiting patiently for their arrival and now that they're here they all head towards the control room.

"Morning" says Daniel.

"Morning" replies Jack.

"Morning" says Sam.

"Morning" says Mitchell.

"Morning" replies Sam.

"Morning" replies Jack.

"Morning" says Siler as he walks passed them in the opposite direction.

"Good morning to every body!. Okay are we done with the mornings now?" moans Jack, sounding very grumpy from lack of sleep.

"Rough night huh?" asks Daniel.

"You guys go ahead I'll catch up" says Sam, suddenly turning and heading away from her friends.

"Where are you going, we've got a briefing." says Jack.

"I need to see Dr Lam, I'll catch up." replies Sam.

So as Sam heads off to the infirmary the rest of her team walk up the small steps to the control room and then to the back where they make their way up the spiral stairs to the briefing room, when they reach the top they see Landry through the glass window on the phone in his office, he raises his finger indicating he'll just be a minute, so they take their seats and wait.

Jack finishes poring himself a cup of coffee and takes his seat at the table, "Ahh - There's nothing like a good cup of coffee to start the day...but I guess this will do until I get one." he says.

A few minutes pass by and Landry finally comes out of his office, "Morning SG-1." he says, pulling out his chair and taking his seat at the head of the table.

Jack slams his cup on to the table when he hears the word morning once again.

"Morning General" says Mitchell.

Sam returns from the infirmary and enters the briefing just as Landry is taking his seat.

"Okay we're all here, Dr Jackson lets get this thing moving, I have a meeting with the IOA this afternoon and I still have a lot of paperwork to get through so if you don't mind..." says Landry.

* * *

Daniel starts handing out files with information and photos of ruins found on P3X-474, a number of researchers and archaeologists have spent a number of weeks examining the ruins and attempting to translate the text that remains engraved on them, the ruins themselves aren't spread over a large area so it wasn't a village, in fact only two large stones remain relatively in tact and readable.

"I'm sorry, what planet is this again?" asks Jack.

"P3X-474, its the planet the crew of the Odyssey were evacuated to when we were under attack from the Ori after the Asgard killed themselves." replies Daniel.

"Ah, I don't remember that." says Jack.

"No, you...you weren't there." replies Daniel.

"Continue Dr Jackson." says Landry.

Daniel goes on to explain that he believes the ruins are actually a memorial of some kind and are ancient, not ancient as in ascended beings ancient, ancient as in old, very very old, initial tests carried out on the ruins indicate that it could in fact be over a billion years old.

"Then who put them there?" asks Vala.

"Don't know. Unfortunately the writing engraved in to the stones is written in a language we haven't encountered before and without any type of reference we don't know what it says." says Daniel.

"Then what makes you think its a memorial?" asks Mitchell.

"Well if you look at the photos you'll see the text is engraved on all sides of the stones and if you look closely you can see a series of dots that break up the writing, now these dots appear randomly throughout the text which to me seems to indicate that its some type of list, probably a list of names like the ones we have on our memorials here on Earth to remember those who gave their lives in battle." says Daniel.

"I'm sorry Dr Jackson, is there a reason you're telling us this?" asks Landry.

Daniel picks up a photo from his file, "This is an image taken of one of the smaller stones, most of the engravings have faded and warn away but you can still make some of it out." he says.

"Didn't you say these ruins were over a billion years old?" asks Carter, after looking at the photo.

"Yes." replies Daniel, with a little grin.

"But isn't that a.." says Vala.

"Stargate." says Teal'c.

One of the images engraved on the stone looks a lot like a Stargate.

"That's impossible. The Ancients didn't build the gates until they came to this galaxy, but that was about 100 million years ago, how can a billion year old stone have an image of a Stargate on it nearly a billion years before it was even created?." asks Sam.

"I don't know, but its fascinating isn't it...I mean this could change everything..." says Daniel.

* * *

Suddenly the Stargate activates and the SGC's base alarms start to sound, "Incoming wormhole" announces Walter over the comms.

"No one is scheduled to check in for at least another 4 hours." says Landry.

They all stand up and heas down the spiral stairs to the control room, they reach the window just as the gate connects.

"What is it?" asks Landry to Walter.

"Receiving SG-4's IDC Sir." says Walter.

"Open the IRIS" orders Landry.

Walter places his hand on the palm scanner and the IRIS jutters slightly and then spirals open revealing the blue shimmering vortex beneath.

A few moments later SG-4 walk through the gate and down the ramp.

Landry bends down to the microphone in the control room, "You're early, SG-4" he says.

Major Pauletti, leader of SG-4 removes his hat and looks up to the control room window, "Yes Sir, we thought it would be best to return as soon as possible, we got some intel." he says.

"Intel?" asks Landry.

"We found her." says Pauletti, with a happy grin on his face.

Landry and Jack share a look at each other, they know exactly what he's talking about, this is what they've been waiting for the last few months and they're not letting this opportunity slip through their fingers.

"Go get her, Colonel." orders Landry.

"Yes Sir." replies Jack.

"Found who?, who are you talking about?." asks Vala, who has no idea what is going on.

SG-1 leave the control room and head to the lockers to gear up.


	2. She-Devil

SG-1 went to the locker room to put on their gear ready to go on a retrieval mission, however, Daniel lagged behind as he stayed to talk to the General, he knew what they were about to do was very important but he also argued that his work researching the ruins on P3X-474 was equally if not much more important, after a lengthy exchange of 'buts' and 'why nots' he finally managed to convince Landry to let him go to P3X-474.

Once the team were geared up they returned 20 minutes later and entered the gate room, standing at the foot of the ramp.

Jack looks back at the control room window, "Dial it up, lets go." he shouts.

The gate spins and when the seventh chevron is locked the gate activates and a stable connection is established, Jack stands with Daniel while the others start walking up the ramp.

"Blowing us off for a bunch of old rocks huh." says Jack.

"Yep." replies Daniel.

Jack stares at him for a moment with his '_Daniel you're such a dweeb_' look on his face, "Well...have fun." he says, snapping in to action as he walks up the ramp towards the gate.

"Good luck." shouts Daniel.

"Yeah, Yeah." replies Jack, as he steps in to the event horizon.

When the gate deactivates, Daniel reaches down and picks up his heavy backpack full of books and other historical reference material and swings it on to his shoulder, a security officer runs over to steady him when the heavy bag nearly causes him to fall over, "Thanks" says Daniel, getting his balance back.

"Are you okay Dr Jackson?" asks Walter.

"What!?..Oh, yeah fine just...I'm ready...dial it up." replies Daniel.

Walter then starts dialling P3X-474 so Daniel can go and have a look at the ruins.

* * *

SG-1 arrive on a world that currently has no designation, Earth hasn't visited before and it was only thanks to Major Pauletti getting hold of some important intel during an unrelated mission that they even knew the gate address.

Its a typical planet in the Milky Way galaxy, the gate is located in a clearing within a wooded area and a path leads away from it, the grass has worn away and recent foot prints can be seen on the path which indicates that the gate is in use by whoever inhabits the planet, looking at the skyline they can see a few streams of smoke coming from beyond the trees.

"Anything look familiar?" asks Jack, looking at Teal'c.

"It does not" replies Teal'c.

"Nope" says Vala.

"The smoke coming from over there doesn't look too thick, possibly a small camp fire or something." says Sam.

"Okay lets check it out" says Jack.

"Woah woah, hold on there skippy." says Mitchell.

Mitchell is the leader of SG-1 but now Jack has been reduced in rank back to Colonel and re-joined SG-1 and Mitchell is now confused as to exactly who is in charge now.

Jack stops and turns around, "Skippy?" he asks.

"The bush kangaroo, O'Neill." says Teal'c.

"Yes, thank you Teal'c." replies Jack.

"Exactly which one of us is giving the orders here?" asks Mitchell.

"I am...lets go" says Jack, turning around and continuing to walk.

"But I'm the leader of SG-1, you rejoined the team...under MY command." says Mitchell.

"No, I retook command of the team." says Jack.

"You can't just take command like that, we're both the same rank now 'Colonel', why should you be in charge?" says Mitchell.

"I have the most experience, and I'm older and wiser" says Jack.

"Pff-yeah, definitely older." replies Mitchell.

"Scuse me?" says Jack, a little angrily.

"Oh Boy!" says Sam under her breath, realising it's about to kick off.

Jack and Mitchell continue to exchange argumentative and insulting comments between each other and eventually end of having a playground scuffle in the dirt.

"This is great, should have brought snacks." says Vala, joyfully sitting on a rock and watching.

Sam walks over to them, "For God sakes, HEY! ...knock it off." she shouts.

Holding each other in a head lock, Jack and Mitchell stop and look up at her.

"What's wrong with you two, you're acting like a couple of kids..Stop it." says Sam.

"Just tell him I'm in charge will ya." says Jack.

"You know what, in terms of length of standing rank and experience, I outrank you both, so I'm in command. Now stop fighting, pick up your stuff and get moving. That's an order." shouts Sam.

As Sam walks off in a huff, they break their head holds and stand up straight brushing themselves off and picking up their gear as they follow the others down the path.

"What's wrong with her?" asks Mitchell.

"Ooh, she hasn't been sleeping much lately." replies Jack.

"Is she really in charge now." asks Mitchell.

"...Nah." replies Jack.

* * *

Even though Sam sounded initially annoyed at Jack and Mitchell's childish behaviour she knows it wasn't serious and its just a 'Male' thing, they apologised and made it up to her and have now decided that they should all be equally in command, unless a desperate situation arises in which case Jack has stated that he will give the orders at the point.

They continue to follow the dirt path for about a mile through the wood and eventually reach a small village, the smoke they saw earlier was coming from the chimneys of two of the small houses in the village, its very small and has may be 8 small buildings in total, there's a large open area in the middle of the village where wooden carts and stalls stand in lines and filled with fruit, vegetables and other merchandise, its probably a planet used by traders.

They walk through the village and passed the stalls keeping a look out as they move forward.

Suddenly Teal'c reaches around and grabs someone by the back of the neck as they approach from behind him, a small man very foolishly ran towards Teal'c from behind, you should never charge at a Jaffa.

"Can I help you with something?" asks Teal'c.

"Easy Teal'c" says Mitchell.

"Do you err...want to buy a scarf?" says the small man, looking a little petrified as Teal'c glares down at him.

"We do not." replies Teal'c.

"Okay Teal'c, put him down." says Jack.

Teal'c lets go of the man and he runs off back in to the stalls, they continue walking and bump in to some more people.

"Hey there, listen we're looking for a..." says Jack, before he can finish what he's saying, the villagers point towards a building at the edge of the village and then walk away from them.

"Thank you." says Jack, "Okay that was weird." he adds.

* * *

As they walk towards and get closer to the building pointed out to them by the villagers, they realise its a tavern and they can hear a lot of shouting and banging coming from inside, it sounds a lot like there's a fight going on, they stop and stand outside while they decide whether to go in or not.

"Vala why don't you go check that out, let us know what's going on." says Mitchell.

"I don't think so." replies Vala, insulted that he even asked.

The shouting gets louder and then suddenly a body comes crashing through the wooden side wall of the tavern and lands very hard on the ground in front of SG-1, its a young girl.

"Get lost. Come back when you've got something real to trade, HaHaHa" says a deep loud male voice from inside the tavern.

The girl gets to her feet, "Scr*w you, I don't need your cr*p anyway." she shouts, she brushes the dry dirt from her clothes and then tosses a small object in to the air and catches it like a baseball, she turns around and starts to walk away with a smile on her face, then stops when she sees SG-1 standing in front of her.

"Oh sh*t." she says.

"Hello, Linda." says Jack, sounding very smug.

"Heh heh...Hi." says Linda, slowly pushing the object in to her pocket, then in a flash she's off on her toes running.

Mitchell springs in to action, he passes Jack his P90 and chases after her, he's very quick on his feet and Linda doesn't get very far, she's barely passed the side of the tavern when Mitchell jumps and tackles her to the ground, the rest of SG-1 run up behind them.

"Nicely done." says Sam.

"Thanks" replies Mitchell, "Get up!" he says, pulling Linda to her feet and holding her arms behind her back.

"What do you want?" asks Linda.

"You know exactly what we want, you're coming back with us." says Jack.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." says Linda, assertively.

They hear an angry shout from inside the tavern, "Thieving witch!. Kill her!".

"Okay you caught me, lets go, take me back right now." says Linda.

Suddenly a load of men come running through the hole in the side of the tavern wall, they're holding various types of weapons and begin firing at Linda and SG-1.

"Time to go." shouts Mitchell.

* * *

**A/N**: For those of you who haven't been following my previous stories, Linda is a clone of Ba'al.

When Ba'al was on Earth and creating his clones he made a few in absolute secrecy, using various techniques he managed to alter the clones before they were grown which allowed him to change their sex, appearance and slow their ageing which allowed the clones to live on Earth completely undetected, these clones were teenagers, they were given identities and foster families, they blended in almost perfectly on Earth and no one knew who they really were, that was until SG-1 discovered them while investigating a mysterious illness affecting the children of a small town. Most of these clones died from a fatal flaw caused by the alteration of their DNA, but Linda survived and fled Earth and they've been looking for her ever since.


	3. Darkness and Light

SG-1 run out of the village and back through the woods towards the gate while being pursued and fired upon by several angry men, Vala and Sam run ahead with Linda while the others follow behind turning and shooting at the men following them, they reach the clearing near the gate and the girls run up to the DHD and dial Earth, the guys cover their backs.

"What did you do?" shouts Jack, ducking behind a log to reload his weapon.

"Nothing." replies Linda.

"Yeah right." says Mitchell.

Sam successfully dials Earth and when the gate activates she sends her identification code.

"Ready to go." she shouts.

"Move!" shouts Jack.

Vala and Sam head through the gate with Linda, the guys swiftly walk backwards while firing their P90's in front of them, pinning the angry mob of men down at the tree line, they manage to make it through the gate.

* * *

Jack is the last to arrive through the gate at the SGC, the IRIS is closed moments after he comes through and the gate deactivates, he turns around and heads down the ramp to where the others are standing, he un-clips his P90 and passes it to Mitchell, he then grabs Linda's shoulder and spins her around so she's facing him.

"All right, what the hell was that about." he asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about." replies Linda, playing dumb.

"Oh I think you do. They weren't chasing _us,_ They were shouting words like Witch, Thief, Scum..and I know Vala didn't do anything, so they must have been after you." says Jack.

"What did he mean by that?" asks Vala, looking at Sam.

Sam shrugs her shoulders.

General Landry comes in to the gate room, "Good work Colonel. What's going on here?" he asks.

"That's what we're trying to find out Sir." says Jack.

"I was just in the tavern getting a drink and minding my own business when a couple of guys attacked me for no reason." says Linda.

Jack doesn't believe her, "Teal'c" he says.

Teal'c steps behind Linda and grabs her arms, then Jack starts checking her pockets, despite the struggling protest from Linda he finds something in one of her pockets, its a strange looking gold object, it has a sphere at its core about the size of a ping pong ball with a red jewel on top of it with a rectangular gold bar going through the middle.

"What's this?" asks Jack.

Linda looks away and remains silent.

Jack looks over his shoulder, "Sgt, take her to a holding room." he says.

* * *

Its been a several hours since they captured Linda and brought her back to Earth, she was then placed in to custody and held in a holding room at Stargate Command, she was also treated for her injuries, Linda is a clone of Ba'al but she doesn't have a symbiote to heal her which means her body is as fragile and frail as any one else's, once her injuries were seen too she was interviewed and questioned about where she has been and what she has been doing for the past few months since leaving Earth, she has remained silent and refused to talk to anyone.

After taking time to rest and get their energy back, SG-1 have returned to the briefing room where they're discussing what to do with her next and where they go from here, the IOA have found out that Linda is at the SGC and as usual they're demanding she be released in to their customer and taken to a more secure facility at Area 51.

Jack is holding the strange object he took from Linda, "So neither of you know what this thing is?" he asks, looking at Teal'c and Vala.

"Its nothing I've ever seen." says Vala, looking at the pretty red jewels that are on it, "Can I have it?" she asks.

"No." replies Jack.

"It appears to be of Goa'uld design, but I have never seen a device such as this." says Teal'c.

"Well we ran tests and its not giving off any radiation or energy signatures so I don't think its a weapon of any kind." says Sam.

Jack puts the strange object in to a foam lined storage container which will be used to keep it safe while being transported to a research facility for further study.

"What's going to happen to her now, Sir?" asks Mitchell.

"A representative of the IOA will be here within the hour, the President has ordered me to hand her over. I guess from there they'll take her to Area 51 and question her themselves." says Landry.

"Good riddance that's what I say, let them have her." says Jack.

"The IOA's interrogation methods have never been very...pleasant, Sir." says Sam.

"Can't argue with you there." says Vala.

"So?" asks Jack.

"So, she's just a ki..." says Sam, who's interrupted by Jack.

Jack holds up his finger making a 'shush' gesture, "Stop, stop right there. She's not a kid. She may look like a kid and talk like a kid, but she's not a kid...its Ba'al." he says, feeling a little disappointed that Sam would even feel any sympathy for her at all.

"You must not allow her youthful and innocent appearance cloud your perception of who she really is, she is Ba'al, and although she does not have a symbiote, she does possess all of Ba'als memories and is every bit a Goa'uld." says Teal'c.

"I know, I was just...never mind." says Sam, gently shaking her head and looking down at the table in thought.

"When the IOA get here Teal'c and I will escort her out, then that'll be it and we won't have to deal with her again." says Jack.

* * *

A representative of the IOA arrived at the SGC about an hour later, accompanied by several heavily armed guards they made their way to the holding room where they shackled Linda and together with Jack and Teal'c she was escorted outside and put in to the back of a truck, Teal'c and Jack head back inside.

"Hey." shouts Linda.

Jack and Teal'c turn around and look at her sitting on a bench in the back of the truck.

"I'm Sorry." says Linda.

"It is too late to apologise for your crimes." says Teal'c.

"No, about the blonde...I liked her." says Linda.

Jack and Teal'c look at each other and wondering...

"Vala told me." says Linda.

"Well don't act like you give a damn, you only care about yourself." says Jack, "You know what just get her out of here will ya." he shouts to the driver.

* * *

With the task of transferring Linda to a secure facility complete, SG-1 can now join Daniel on P3X-474, they arrive through the gate, its daylight and the Sun beams brightly in the sky, the ruins are about 20 minutes walk away.

Jack puts on his sunglasses, "Carter, why is the Sun up at 7 PM?" he asks.

"Its 7 PM back on Earth, this planet has a 72 hour rotation around its Sun, its about midday here." replies Sam.

"72 hours in a day huh. Thank God we don't work on this planet." says Jack.

They all head North-East of the gate towards the ruins, on their way they pass a group of researchers and scientists who have packed up all their equipment and artefacts they've found and are on their way back to the SGC.

Two scientists are carrying a large black heavy trunk, one of them suddenly drops their end and quickly walks up to Jack.

"Colonel O'Neill." says Felger, with a smile and standing to attention and giving a salute.

Jack does a double take when he sees him, he removes his sunglasses, "Felger?" he says, there's a hint of worry in his voice.

"Yes Sir. Been a long time Sir." says Felger, he waves at Sam, "Hi" he says.

Sam nods and grins to acknowledge him.

"Are you err...heading back?" asks Jack.

"Yes Sir, yes we are, yeah, heading back to Stargate Command Sir. Unless you need us to come with you and show you around, I mean I'd be more than happy too..." says an excited Felger.

"NO!" shouts Jack in panic, then lowers his voice, "No no, that won't be necessary, we'll be fine, thanks anyway though." he says.

"Excuse me...it takes two people to carry this you know." shouts Coombs.

Felger looks behind, "Oh you remember Coombs." he says.

"Yes. How's it going." shouts Jack.

"Fine, thank you. Will you hurry up please." replies Coombs, getting impatient waiting for Felger.

"Well it was good to see you all again." says Felger, he salutes again and then goes back to Coombs and picks up his end of the trunk and starts walking away.

"Moron." says Coombs.

"I was talking to O'Neill and catching up, I haven't seen him in a while." says Felger.

"Catching up?, what are you best pals now. You both work at the SGC you can see him any time you want." says an annoyed Coombs.

Felger looks back and waves at SG-1, Jack reluctantly waves back.

"Don't touch anything!" shouts Jack, then clutches his stomach like he has a pain.

"Are you alright?" asks Sam.

"Yeah, the guy gives me gas. I get a sick feeling every time I see that guy." replies Jack.

They continue to head towards the ruins.

* * *

After meeting up with Daniel at the ruins, Jack, Teal'c, Mitchell and Sam spend a few hours just sitting on rocks randomly scattered around the immediate area, Vala and Daniel have been sat at the base of one of the stone columns trying to translate as much of the text as they can.

Daniel has concluded that it is definitely a list of something and engraved around the base of the column are smaller engravings which he believes to be dates relating to the list, however, he hasn't yet been able to find any language on Earth or any they've encountered on their travels that match or even come close to the language used on the stone, he's never seen anything like it.

"Daniel, how long are we going to stay here?" asks Vala, slamming closed a book she was pretending to read.

"As long as it takes." replies Daniel, not even looking at her.

"Did you at least find something a value while you were digging around?" asks Vala.

"Well the ruins are priceless, if you're talking about gold and jewels then no." replies Daniel.

Jack, who was laying on a large rock, sits up, "Daniel, any progress on this thing, we've been here for hours." he says.

"I'll see if I can help." says Sam, sliding off a rock and walking over to the column.

As Sam approaches the column the sky dims a little and it starts to get dark.

"Landry's going to be dialling in soon, if you haven't made any progress by then we're leaving." says Jack.

"Can I help with anything?" asks Sam, crouching down at the side of Daniel.

Daniel smiles at her, "I don't think so. No offence, its just that..well even I'm having a hard time with it so.." he says.

"No offence taken, just wish there was something I could do." says Sam.

"Actually I could use some water." says Daniel.

"I'll get you some." replies Sam, she stands up and walks back over to the rocks to her backpack.

The sky begins to clear and the sun beams down once again, Sam gets the water bottle from her backpack and takes it over to Daniel.

"Is there an eclipse or something?" asks Daniel, standing and taking the water bottle and looking around at the sky.

"Just clouds I think." replies Sam.

Daniel hands back the water bottle, "Thanks." he says.

"No problem." says Sam, "I'll leave you to it, let me know if you need anything else." she adds.

"Okay." says Daniel.

Daniel notices that the sky gets clear and brighter again and it bugs him for a moment, then he thinks about it, "Sam, could you come here for a second." he says.

"Yeah." says Sam, she walks back over to him, "What do you need?" she asks.

Daniel holds her hand and walks away from the column with her, the sky becomes clear again, he walks back towards the columns with her and the sky goes dim, the others noticed what was happening and walking over to them.

"What's going on?" asks Mitchell.

"I'm not sure." says Daniel, he leads Sam to various points around the column and the sky appears to get darker when she stands in certain places.

"Am I doing that?" asks a confused Sam.

Daniel looks at her, equally confused, "I think so." he says.

Sam giggles, "This is silly, I think we've been in this heat for too long." she says, she shakes her head and turns to walk away, she trips over a rock on the ground and slams lightly in to the side of the larger column.

* * *

Something strange begins to happen, thick dark clouds like thunderclouds fill the sky above them, at the side of the column Sam leant against, random letters and symbols engraved on to it start to gradually glow bright orange, they all step away from the column and as they watch they see all the letters and symbols glow, after a few seconds the glowing suddenly stops.

"Daniel?" asks Vala, she and the others stand in shock wondering what the heck just happened.

"No idea." replies Daniel.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet shakes briefly but violently, then cracks appear in the ground and crack and grow rapidly around them.

"I believe we should leave immediately O'Neill." says Teal'c.

"Yeah, lets go, head for the gate." says Jack.

They make off running as fast as they can towards the Stargate, the sky gets darker and filled with more and more dark clouds, the loud sound of thunder can be heard, cracks and large holes continue to appear in the ground around them, off in the distance they see something incredibly large burst out of the crumbling ground in several locations all around them.

"The planet is breaking apart." shouts Sam.

A good long distance ahead of them, they see the small blue vortex of the gate appear as it activates, its Landry dialling in for their check-in.

"SG-1 this is Stargate Command, come in." says Landry over the radio.

"Sir, shut down the gate and be ready to open the IRIS as soon as we dial in, we're coming in hot and we're coming in fast!." shouts Mitchell.

Landry tells Walter to shut it down, but a malfunction is preventing him from deactivate it.

"Cut the power manually." orders Landry.

A large hole opens up in the ground and Daniel slips in to it, he clings on to the edge while dangling perilously, "DanielJackson" shouts Teal'c when he and Jack see what happened and they both run back for him.

"Keep going, get to the gate" shouts Jack to Vala, Sam and Mitchell.

Behind them, the top of the column appears to explode and a powerful beam of orange light shoots out of it, the ground continues to break and crumble away at their feet and the sky above them just keeps getting darker and louder thunder is heard, as if things couldn't get any worse the rocks thrown in to the air when objects burst from the ground are now falling to the surface like meteorites.


	4. Jump

Jack and Teal'c run back for Daniel and grab his arms moments before he looses his grip, they pull him up from the hole and drag him a few feet across the ground, they get him to his feet, "Come on, we gotta get out of here." says Jack.

As they start running towards the gate to join the others, lights appear to come down from the sky and fly around and towards them like snakes twisting and spiralling through the air, large chunks of rock fall and shake the ground and a strong wind pushes them back which makes it hard for them to move forward, Jack, Teal'c and Daniel keep falling over and have to keep helping each other up.

"Where's the gate?" shouts Teal'c, as the air fills with dust and smoke.

They eventually battle their way through and join their team members at the gate, Sam is at the DHD attempting to remove the power crystal and cut off the gate power, "What's the hold up?" asks Daniel.

"Give me a minute..." says Sam.

They have to shout very loud in order to be heard over the sound of thunder, cracking surface, the howling wind and falling boulders around them, its like Armageddon.

"Now would be a good time." says Jack.

"Got it!" says Sam, yanking out the large red power crystal from inside the DHD, the gate then almost immediately shuts down.

Conditions start to get worse and the ground shakes ever more violently, causing the team to lose their balance and stumble around, Sam starts to stumble backwards as she tries to slide the crystal back in to the DHD, Mitchell struggles over to her, "We gotta go Sam." he says, he and Sam both hold the crystal and pull themselves towards the DHD and slide it inside.

The crystal is successfully inserted and they get the dial cover back in place and it powers back up, because they and the DHD are shaking so much its hard to see and push the symbols, but they manage it and slam their fists down on the activation button, the gate then activates.

Jack gets on his radio, "SG-1 coming through." he shouts, "...Go!" he says.

A part of the ground suddenly breaks beneath the gate and rises a few feet in to the air and knocks the gate over, tipping it backwards, they watch in horror as it crashes to the ground, but its still active so they make a run for it, helping each other keep their balance they all go for the gate and leap through the air, jumping in to the event horizon.

* * *

At Stargate Command they've all been running around frantically trying to turn off the gate at their end so that SG-1 could dial in, turning off the bases power did nothing and they even resorted to severing the power cables completely but again that fails, the gate eventually just shuts down by itself, occurring simultaneously at the precise moment Sam removed the crystal from the DHD on P3X-474.

"The gate is off line Sir." says Walter.

When the gate at the SGC shut down they decided to give it a few minutes in the hope that SG-1 would now be able dial in, but several minutes later and the gate is still showing no activity, Landry stares at the gate with desperation.

"They should have dialled in by now...dial it back." he orders.

Walter dials P3X-474, but as the seventh chevron spins around, it fails to activate.

"Chevron seven..will not lock." says Walter.

"Try it again." orders Landry.

They try again but the same thing happens, no lock or connection is made.

"It won't lock, General" says Walter.

"Why not?" asks an anxious Landry.

"I'm not sure Sir, I'll run a full diagnostic, but when we can't make a lock it usually means the gate is buried...or it isn't their anymore." replies Walter with worry.

Landry stares back at the inactive gate for a moment then turns back to Walter, "Contact the Daedalus, tell them to divert to P3X-474 and find out what's going on, I want to know the moment they know anything." he says, then heads away towards his office.

"Yes Sir." replies Walter.

* * *

The Daedalus was on its way to the Pegasus galaxy to help clean up the mess and recover hive ships that have been left drifting in space after the Wraith simply vanished in to thin air a little over a month ago, they were on the very edge of the Milky Way when they picked up the transmission from Stargate Command, ordering them to change course.

A few minutes later and the Daedalus would have been out of range so its lucky they picked up the transmission at all, Colonel Caldwell acknowledged the transmission and turned the ship around, it took them almost 4 hours but they eventually reached P3X-474.

When the ship exited hyperspace, Caldwell immediately sprung from his chair and took a few steps towards the window on the bridge.

"What in God's name is that." he says out loud, standing in disbelief at what he sees in front of them.

Directly in front of them where P3X-474 should be, the planet appears to have turned in to something else entirely, they see a massive circular cloud, it looks like a plasma cloud, black and grey and parts of it are constantly illuminated by flashes or orange light from inside it.

Caldwell turns to his first officer, "Major Marks, anything?" he says.

"Erm, the sensors are having a hard time detecting anything Sir, I'm getting a massive energy reading but can't determine what it is...I think its overloading the sensors." replies Marks.

"Life signs?" asks Caldwell.

Marks pushes a few buttons and shakes his head with a shoulder shrug, "No idea Sir...there's nothing..I...I...not getting anything." he says.

Caldwell walks back and sits his chair, "Contact Stargate Command, let them know what we've found."

* * *

Jack slowly opens his eyes, his vision is blurred and his head hurts like he's waking up after being knocked out cold, laying on the ground he moves his arms placing his hands on the ground to push himself up in to a kneeling position, he rubs his eyes as his vision becomes clearer, looking around he immediately sees Daniel laying on the ground a few feet away so he crawls towards him.

Jack places his hand on Daniel's shoulder and shakes him, "Daniel" he says, "Daniel" he shouts.

Daniel wakes up sharply and then turns around, "Jack?!" he says.

"Yeah its me. You alright?" says Jack.

"I think so." replies Daniel, he looks around briefly, "Where are we?" he asks.

"You tell me." says Jack.

They hear a moan and look over to see Teal'c and Mitchell getting to their feet, "T." shouts Jack, he and Daniel get up and walk over to them, Sam and Vala are on the ground near Teal'c so they wake and help them up, apart from them all suffering from some sort of concussion, they're relatively in good shape.

They stand and look at their surroundings, they appear to be standing in a large open area within some very old ruins, there isn't much to be seen, apart from the ground the only structures around them are broken columns and slabs of stone that randomly stand in the distance around them, behind them is a circle that looks like a Stargate, but it doesn't have chevrons and instead of star constellations it is engraved with the same type of text Daniel found on the large stone on P3X-474.

Amazingly the sky is crystal clear, but instead of clouds they see space, they see planets, stars and beautiful particle clouds of purple, yellow and greens, they appear to be right up close to everything, its as if they could reach out and touch them.

Worryingly they don't see anything beyond the ruins which are just a few hundred meters across and wide, no trees or mountains or even a surface, its as if the ruins are just floating in space.

"Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this isn't the SGC." says Jack.

"We definitely dialled Earth, right?" asks Mitchell.

"Yeah...it was a little shaky back there but it was definitely the correct address." replies Sam.

"Then how did we end up here?...wherever here is." asks Mitchell.

Sam turns around and looks at the strange Stargate, "Well we obviously came through the gate...if that is a gate. We've seen wormholes jump to other gates before, if there was an explosion when we went through the gate on P3X-474 then the resulting blast could have cause the wormhole to jump and send us here." she says.

"Yeah okay, lets just dial this thing up and go home." says Jack.

"That's a great idea, there's just one tiny problem." says Vala.

"What?" asks Jack.

"Look around...do you see a dialling device anywhere?" says Vala.


	5. Shock to the system

After spending a few hours looking over every inch of the ruins in search of a dialling device and anything that can give them a clue as to where they are they came up empty, the ruins are so old and that if anything had been there in the past then it has crumbled away and turned to dust a long time ago, the odd looking Stargate is the only piece of technology they've found, they gave up searching some time ago and have since just been sitting on the ground staring quite literally in to space around them.

"I can't read any of this, its gibberish!" says Daniel.

For the best part of an hour he's been trying to make sense of the text engraved on the ring of the Stargate, its written in the same language as the text he found on P3X-474 but he still can't make heads or tails of it, he rubs his eyes feeling tired and then walks over and sits on the ground by his team mates.

"Does anyone have any food, I'm starving." says Vala.

"Yeah..me too." says Sam.

"Starving." says Mitchell.

"We finished off the last of the water a while ago." says Jack.

"What about food?" asks Vala.

"It was in the packs." replies Jack.

"Why didn't you bring it with you?" asks Vala.

"Why didn't I bring it with me?" says Jack, sounding a little annoyed, "The planet was breaking up...saving the rations wasn't exactly my top priority. I'll tell you what, the next time we're in a life or death situation I'll be sure to check that we have enough food and water before we start running for our lives." replies Jack.

Teal'c reaches in to his vest pocket, "I have a ration bar, O'Neill." he says, pulling the bar from his pocket and fiddling with the wrapper.

"Way to go Teal'c." says Jack.

Everyone except Daniel stands up and gathers around Teal'c, he clutches the ration bar and pulls it close to his chest.

"Well come on muscles, split it." says Vala, getting impatient.

"Should we not ration it?" says Teal'c.

"Its a _ration - bar_...its already a ration." says Mitchell.

May be its because of their current situation or because of lack of food and water, or just because they are who they are, but they suddenly all erupt and grab Teal'cs hands fighting for the bar.

Daniel hears the commotion and gets up and goes over to them, "Heeey!" he shouts, they all stop silent and look at him, "Stop it." he says.

"What..you don't want any of this?." says Jack.

Daniel lunges in to the huddle and forcibly grabs the now slightly mushed ration bar from their hands, he breaks off pieces and hands them out to everyone, "...for you, some for you and some for you. Okay you all have a piece, now eat it and shut up." he says, then walks away and sits back on the floor.

Jack looks at Sam's piece, "Hers is bigger than mine." he shouts.

Daniel sharply turns his head to look at him with a frustrated expression.

"Never mind, this is fine." says Jack, shutting up and eating his piece of the bar with the others.

* * *

Once they had all consumed the ration bar they returned to just sitting and wondering around aimlessly, as tiredness, hunger and thirst began to set in, they lay on their backs on the ground next to one another looking up at the planets and stars around them, they start to see trails of colourful dust particles moving in space from many directions and appear to be flowing towards each other and they all suddenly sit upright in wonder.

"I'm hallucinating." says Jack.

"No, no you're not...I see it too." says Sam.

The trails converge at the far edge of the ruins and emits a bright glow of light, they see something forming within it and when the light eventually fades they see something appear in front of them, everyone gets to their feet and looks, they don't know if whatever it is is friendly or hostile so they stay alert.

"Daniel." says Jack.

"Jack." says Daniel.

"What's that?" asks Jack.

"I don't know." says Daniel.

"Well go find out." says Jack, nudging Daniel's shoulder.

"Yeah, Daniel. Go find out." says Vala, slightly hiding behind Teal'c.

Daniel shakes his head a little, thinking to himself 'why is it always him who has to do this stuff' , he takes a few steps forward, "Err...Hello" he shouts, he looks back at the others, they stand there flicking their hands urging him to continue.

"We err...My name is Daniel, we don't mean you any harm. Hello?." says Daniel, after a few moments he turns around and steps back to the others, "I don't think it can hear me." he says.

"Then go over to it, get closer." says Sam.

"No thanks, I'm good right here." replies Daniel.

"Oh for cryin-out-loud." says Jack, he starts looking around at the ground and then bends down.

"What are you doing?" asks Daniel.

"I'm going to throw a rock at it." says Jack, standing back up after picking up a rock and swinging his arm back.

Daniel grabs and holds his arm before he can throw it, "Wait wait, you can't throw a rock a it." he shouts.

"Why not?" asks Jack.

"Because it is not necessary." says a strange voice.

Jack, Daniel and the others suddenly jump and step back when they hear the voice and turn to see a woman standing just a couple of feet away from them.

"Holy..." shouts Jack, when his heart nearly jumps out of his chest.

* * *

The woman looks like a human female, about 30 years of age, 6 foot tall, dark red hair, she's wearing a silky green hooded robe that stretches from her shoulders all the way to the floor.

"I did not mean to frighten you." she says.

"Yeah well ya did." says Jack, "Hey hey hey!" he shouts when she takes a step towards him, "Don't come any closer, I've...got a rock. Don't make me use it." he says.

"Hi, I'm Daniel. You are?" says Daniel, stepping in front of Jack.

"You may call me Nym." she replies.

Daniel smiles at her, being friendly, "Nym. Where did you come from?" he asks.

"Everywhere." she replies.

"Okay." says Daniel, looking a little confused, "Do you know why we're here?" he asks.

"Yes." says Nym.

"Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit." shouts Mitchell, standing behind with the others.

"Come with me." says Nym, she turns and slowly walks to the far edge of the ruins.

Daniel started to follow her but then stops when he realises the others aren't coming, "Come on guys." he says, the others don't look too sure about it, "The only way we're going to find out what's going on and get home is if we...follow her." he says.

"Yeah." says Sam, she walks off towards Daniel.

The others eventually follow and stand with Sam and Daniel next to Nym at the edge of the ruins, Nym holds out her arms to her sides and the planets and stars around them begin to move, the ruins appear to remain stationary and it is space itself that is moving around them, they stand and watch with amazement as stars and countless planets of all sizes fly passed them.

* * *

Eventually the speed of the planets moving passed them decreases and slows down, then they stop, in front of them they see a large Earth like planet with two moons and a large yellow sun, on the dark side of the planet they see lights on the land mass below, there's obviously intelligent life on the planet.

"Look, they have a base on the moon." says Sam, pointing towards one of the moons, they see a structure with lights on the surface and a small ship leaving it and heading towards the planet.

"Where are we Nym?" asks Daniel.

"We are a vast distance from your native galaxy, the planet before us is called Uihado, it has a population of over 12 billion." says Nym.

"Okay, obvious question...why are we here?." asks Jack.

"There is something you need to see." says Nym, "Look." she says, off in the distance what looks like a hyperspace exit suddenly appears.

Two small ships emerge and immediately head for the planet, they come to a stop in orbit above the planet and just remain there, the ships look very odd, they have no straight angles or curves and don't appear to be made of an alloy, they appear more rock like in form, if SG-1 hadn't seen them moving like ships then they could have easily mistaken them for small asteroids.

"What are those?" asks Jack.

"Watch." replies Nym.

A few minutes later the two ships separate with one heading for the moon, then several ships come from the planets surface and start firing on them, they're far bigger in size compared to the two little ones, the little ones return fire and destroy them with a single shot, they then turn their attention to the moons and the planet, after a couple of shots both the planet and the moons begin to glow and look as though they're about to explode.

"Get down!" shouts Mitchell.

"Down!" shouts Jack.

SG-1 turn and hit the ground as the planet and moons explode, the ruins appear to be shielded some how as the enormous blast wave, rock and debris explodes around them, once its over they get back to their feet and stand by Nym who remained standing the whole time, Uihado and its moons are gone, the sun is all that remains, off in the distance they see the two little ships disappear through a hyperspace window.

"Oh my God, are they...are they dead?" asks Sam.

Those little ships took out an entire planet, two moons and 12 billion people in a matter of seconds.


End file.
